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Sherman Edges Simonsen by One Pin to Take PBA Bear Open Lead After First Round

by Jerry Schneider | Wednesday, August 28, 8:22 PM

AURORA, Ill. – Kyle Sherman of O’Fallon, Missouri, made the necessary adjustments to a different PBA lane condition averaging nearly 240 for eight games Wednesday to take the PBA Bear Open first-round lead in the second of three events that make up the FloBowling PBA Summer Swing presented by the Brands of Ebonite International at Parkside Lanes.

Bowling on the 41-foot PBA Bear lane conditioning pattern, the 25-year-old Sherman finished the day with a 1,918 pinfall total with games of 223, 237, 236, 244, 222, 279, 230 and 247 to edge out PBA Wolf Open runner-up Anthony Simonsen of Little Elm, Texas, finishing the round in second just one pin behind with 1,917.

Sherman, who is in pursuit of his first Go Bowling! PBA Tour individual title, rebounded after a 45th-place finish in the Wolf Open which was conducted on PBA’s 32-foot Wolf lane condition.

Rounding out the top five were Wolf Open fourth-place finisher Kyle Troup of Taylorsville, North Carolina in third with 1,886 followed by 2018 Bear Open winner EJ Tackett of Bluffton, Indiana, in fourth with 1,835 and four-time PBA Player of the Year Jason Belmonte of Australia in fifth with 1,831.

Wolf Open winner Sean Rash of Montgomery, Illinois finished the first round of the Bear Open in 22nd with a 1,750 eight-game pinfall.

The entire field returns for a six-game qualifying round Thursday at Noon CT that will determine the top 18 players who will advance to a six-game cashers round at 5 p.m. The top five players after the cashers round will advance to the Bear Open stepladder finals at 8:30 p.m. CT.

The players are also competing to make the cut to the top 24 for the match play rounds of the PBA Illinois Open.

Based on the combined 28-game qualifying totals from the Wolf and Bear events, the top 24 will advance to Illinois Open match play, consisting of two eight-game match play rounds on Friday beginning at 11 a.m., and the final eight-game round Saturday morning at 11 a.m. that will determine the top five players for the Illinois Open stepladder finals at 3:30 p.m.

Simonsen holds a commanding lead in the Illinois Open standings with a 5,155 pinfall (234 average) for 22 games, 188 pins ahead of Rash in second with 4,967.

Rounding out the top five in Illinois Open qualifying are Troup, 4,961; Francois Lavoie of Canada, 4,921 and Belmonte and Wolf Open third-place finisher PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke tied for fifth with 4,914.

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